SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, MI — Saginaw Township will seek a grant to help fund a project that would include renovating the township’s existing tennis courts, as well as the addition of new ones.

The Saginaw Township Board of Trustees voted on the matter during its Monday, March 25, meeting, and unanimously adopted a resolution of support to seek a Natural Resources Trust Fund Development Grant.

The township submitted for the grant last year but did not receive it, said Bridget Smith, Saginaw Township’s assistant director of community development.

“Typically when we've come to you in the past, there was a public hearing associated with the grant itself and then a resolution,” Smith told the board. “This year, the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) has changed the way in which they process applications, so they’re allowing the township, any community, to resubmit the same grant application.”

A change from last year, however, is that the township is offering to match 30 percent, up from 26 percent.

Smith said the proposed plan is to renovate the six existing 78-foot courts and to mark them at 60 feet so children and adults can effectively use them. The plan would also add four new 36-foot courts specifically for children who are eight years old and younger.

The plan also includes the addition of a path from the parking lot to the courts, making them wheelchair accessible.

Smith said the existing lights are going to be removed when the courts come down, and the estimated cost to light all six courts would be about $90,000.

She said, for the purposes of crime prevention, if the tennis courts were going to be lit, the entire area including the parking lot would need to be lit, as well, which is not part of the immediate plan but hasn’t been ruled out for the future.

“If you’re going to provide nighttime park activities, you really need to light it up so it’s safe,” she said.

Smith said the project’s total cost would be about $345,000 and the township would match 30 percent, as well as provide some labor and equipment. Also, the Midland Community Tennis Center has pledged $10,000 toward the potential project.

“We have been working for three years now with the Midland Community Tennis Center,” Smith said. “The Midland Community Tennis Center intends to augment the grant request with approximately $10,000 in resources that the USTA (United States Tennis Association) awarded to the MCTC to grow youth tennis.”